A few decades ago, a couple who had found Jesus while kneeling at our family room sofa, decided to get married, and they asked my husband and me to stand up with them. As the bride and I were getting dressed the day of their wedding, she asked me to wear something I had never worn and was unsure that I should.

I thought, I don't know if it's right or not, but I'm going to do it anyway.

That night as I lay in bed, the Holy Spirit spoke tenderly but specifically: "I'm not condemning you for what you did but for not caring if it was wrong." I've never forgotten that lesson. His message was clear. He wants me to always care that He is pleased.

God sees and cares about every detail of our lives. Our private thoughts, secret ambitions, and the conversations behind closed doors--everything is "laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).

Cultivating a passion to please only Him begins to free us. Because His delight in us is so totally gratifying, the desire to please Him becomes a passion. A deep inner "knowing" that this is what would gladden God's heart becomes our guide to selecting what to say, how to spend our time, what to wear, even what we think.

Dear Lord, I invite you to reveal wrong motives, wrong attitudes--all that is displeasing to You.